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Starring LA: Mi Vida Loca
This weekend maybe you stopped by the Lotus Festival in Echo Park. If so, you were treading on ground that once, way back before Clinton was elected president, was the domain of junkies and gang-bangers.
Back then, Echo Park was populated by some crunchy hippies, a handful of ballsy hipsters, and a whole lot of Hispanic families. With idle teenagers. Some carried guns.
1993's Mi Vida Loca is Allison (ballsy hipster) Anders' second film. She was intrigued by the neighborhood gang kids, got their advice on the script, and even cast some (like Nélida López, pictured). Some say the film is authentic; others disagree.
Mi Vida Loca focuses on people who don't usually get screen time; not just poor gang kids, but the girls in gang life. As gang movies go, it's a pretty quiet, with relationships and tough decisions in the foreground and drivebys in the background.
More than anything, though, it's a piece of history. The average price for a single family home in Echo Park was $512,000 this May. Which means that you can look for small-time dope dealers around Echo Park Lake, but you're more likely to see them by watching this DVD.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
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